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SHOP 9, FORREST WALK, 97 ROKEBY ROAD, SUBIACO
TELEPHONE 9388 8333
Antique & Contemporary Jewellery
Scandinavian & Italian Silver
Modern Diamond Rings
Fine Porcelain
English & European Silver
A Registered Valuer & Member of The Jewellers Association
& The Gemmological Association of Australia. Jeweller on site.
SUBIACO
ANTIQUES
& FINE JEWELLERY
EDWARD GRYG
JEWELLER
industry in Perth is not as deep as it was, in terms of quantity,” says
Les. “But quality is certainly available. We’re regularly complimented
by overseas and interstate buyers on our quality and diversity.”
Jot Rijks, of Dutch Antiques in Claremont, says in the nine years
he’s been a dealer in Perth, he’s seen many antiques businesses close
down. And while he puts much of it down to antiques becoming less
fashionable, he believes it’s also due to this local perception that
quality is not available in Western Australia.
Jot gives an example of a customer coming in with a clock he had
bought in London. “I had an identical clock for 30 per cent less, and
when I pointed it out to him, his reply was: ‘I bought it in London and
it was expensive, so it had to be good’,” says Jot, who charged $75 to
fix the clock. “People are surprised when they find something nice
because there is this attitude that there is nothing here. But Perth
has quality – you just have to find it.”
Dealers agree some buyers also think it’s more prestigious to say
they bought something in Melbourne or Paris, for example. “I think
it’s also partly because people tend to spend money more readily
when they are away on holidays,” says John Brans of Brans Antiques
& Art in Mosman Park, which has a strong following on the east
coast. “Over the last couple of decades, people have become busier
and busier and it’s not until they are on holidays that they have time
to wander shops. And husbands and wives often travel together,
whereas in Perth they are often not shopping together.”
John says it’s also partly driven by decorators who find it more
exciting to tell their clients they need to do a trip together to Paris.
“They go with the decorator to the other side of the world and pay a
lot more for something they could have got down the road.”
John says the depth of the local market has diminished in
quantity, but not quality. “There are far fewer antiques dealers in
Perth than there were in the late 80s, when it was ‘boomtown’ and
antiques were fashionable.” But, he says, this is the case throughout
the world. “All over England there were little antiques shops in
small towns, but areas gentrify as populations grow and
dealers can’t afford the rent.”
Derek Aslett talks about his hometown of Dover in the UK,
where he says there were nine dealers on the high street 20
years ago and now there are none. John Brans agrees that the
business has become much more difficult. “The fashion for
contemporary decorating, plus mass importation of cheap things
from China (and before that Indonesia) meant the market for
middle-of-the-road, furnishing-type antiques all but disappeared...
though there has always been good demand for high quality.”
John says the industry in general has improved a bit as people
become sick of the clinical look of minimalism and the search for
eclecticism has meant a wider interest again.
He encourages people to feed this interest locally. “Even if a
local dealer doesn’t have what you’re looking for, they generally
know people in other parts of Australia or the world where they
can find it. If you buy from someone you don’t have a relationship
with, you don’t know what you’re getting.”
“... quality is certainly available.
We’re regularly complimented by
overseas and interstate buyers on
our quality and diversity”